Fast-track hip and knee surgery focuses on optimising pain management, achieving early mobilisation and shortening the length of stay in hospital. These factors make interprofessional collaboration imperative. With the aim of further diminishing the length of stay for patients admitted to an orthopaedic ward for hip or knee replacement and with inspiration from an interprofessional training unit, a daily interprofessional meeting was introduced. At this interprofessional meeting, surgeons, nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists used a checklist in discussing barriers and focus areas for discharging hip and knee replacement patients and made joint decisions about which healthcare profession should handle a given task. This interprofessional collaboration was tested in a case control study comparing hospital length of stay in 75 patients treated before introduction of the daily interprofessional meeting with 88 patients treated after the introduction. The result was a significant reduction in the length of stay in hospital in total hip replacement patients (from a mean of 4.1 days (SD 2.1) to 2.7 days (SD 1.4), p < 0.05) but not in knee replacement patients (from a mean of 3.7 days (SD 1.9) to 3.1 days (SD 1.6), p = 0.33). So improving interprofessional collaboration by introducing an interprofessional daily meeting may reduce the length of stay in hospital for total hip replacement patients, but further studies are needed to explore the effect in knee replacement patients.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to explore and compare medical students' perceived learning outcomes when treating patients under supervision in two different learning settings: a uniprofessional or an interprofessional dyad. Methods: The design of the study is a qualitative interview study. Data were collected from October 2016 to June 2017 via semi-structured group interviews performed at the end of the clinical placement in an orthopaedic outpatient clinic for medical students in the last semester of the curriculum. In the placement, the students worked by turns in either a uniprofessional dyad with two medical students or an interprofessional dyad with a nursing student. The data from the interviews were analysed using Systematic Text Analysis. Results: Overall, 21 students were interviewed. The students appreciated the authenticity of dealing with real patient problems. Both dyads provided the possibility of working as a professional, but the interprofessional dyad had a more authentic setting. In both dyads, the students' interdependence and mutual support promoted the acquisition of knowledge and skills. Working in the interprofessional dyad facilitated relationships between the professions, and the medical students became aware of some of their own profession's strengths and weaknesses. The interprofessional collaboration contributed to different perspectives on the patients' course of treatment and led to a more holistic understanding of the treatment. Conclusions: Interprofessional dyads have the potential to improve learning outcomes in the clinical training of medical students. Further studies are needed to explore the benefits across medical specialities and settings.